Rioting ‘Okada’ riders

Commercial motorcycle operators popularly called “Okada” last week took laws into their hands in protest against aspects of the Lagos traffic laws as they affected their activities. The riders, who have been at daggers drawn with the government for restricting them from plying 475 roads in the state, took to lawlessness as government moved to enforce the law.

According to reports, the motorcycle operators were incensed by the arrest of more than five thousand commercial motorcycles. They went on rampage in some parts of the state and by the time the dust had settled 10 Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) buses had been damaged even as some passengers were inflicted with injuries.

The Okada operators had since the law was enacted vowed to resist it hinging their grouse on the ground that it will send them out of business. But the government has pressed on with the law allowing some time for the operators to come to terms with it. But as the riot has shown, Okada operators are not ready to budge unless they are defeated by the superior power of the government.

As it is, the law has to be implemented as any piece of legislation that cannot be enforced is no law.

The government has over time expressed serious worry over the excesses of the commercial motorcycle operators. Apart from their flagrant disregard of traffic laws, they drive very dangerously, ride against traffic and constitute a serious health hazard to other road users. They have also been fingered in many armed robbery attacks using the high speed of their bike to beat traffic and evade arrest.

Even safety laws as the use of helmets and restriction on the maximum number of passengers are observed in the breach. They could also be easily seen and noticed for their unruliness, molesting and attacking motorists at the slightest incident of infraction. Records also have it that most of the accident patients in our orthopaedic hospitals are victims of Okada accidents.

It was for some of these reasons that the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in January 1, 2009 began the enforcement of the use of crash helmets by the operators. Like the current law, the Okada operators vehemently resisted it, staging at will, all manner of arguments and protests so as to stall that high-minded exercise.

But the commission went ahead to enforce the law, arresting thousands of defaulters which like in the present circumstance, elicited protests. That law has come to stay even though it is still being flouted by many motorcyclists. Thus, Okada riders do not seem to have a choice than to start coming to terms with the fact that the state government will finally have its way in this piece of legislation. The Lagos State House of Assembly has even threatened outright ban on commercial motorcycles if their acts of lawlessness are not reined in. That would be a foreboding measure. But the operators have a strong point in arguing that the ban will lead to loss of jobs for its army of members and families.

With the high rate of unemployment in the country in the face of rising cost of living, it will be highly uncharitable not to admit the deleterious effects of restricting Okada operators from plying as much as 475 roads. It is also proper to admit that Okada came into the nation’s transport calculation as a child of necessity.

For a very long time in this city as well as many others across the country, an efficient transport system was completely non-existent. And in the particular case of Lagos, grinding traffic jams made movement a daunting task. Okada then came to the rescue as it made for easy movement though not without serious repercussions. However, residents of the city had to contend with the attendant risks as they were considered a lesser evil; an indication of how bad the situation was.

With time, the limitations of Okada began to dawn on the people. Apart from being an inelegant means of transportation, it began to lend itself to sundry abuses as the criminally-minded ones in their midst took advantage of its getaway services to commit sundry crimes. No government worth its salt can afford to standby while this continues. Thus, in spite of the reality that the restriction will throw many of its operators out of job, it does appear that the Lagos state government has no choice than to implement the law to the letter. No doubt, the temporary losses by the operators by way of loss of jobs will be adequately compensated by the larger benefits to society that will ultimately come with that piece of legislation. It is therefore in the overall interest of the society that the activities of the Okada operators are properly regulated. That is why government is there in the first place.

So it not a matter of confrontation and lawlessness as the Okada riders took resort to last week Monday. They must increasingly have to come to terms with the reality that they cannot win this war. Before now, some state governments have taken similar decisions restricting Okada operators to certain inner roads. Ekiti state government is very close to enforcing similar decision even as the traffic situation there can be described as a child’s play when compared with Lagos.

In effect, the restriction is a thing whose time has come. Those nursing the feeling that Okada would continue to operate as a viable means of transportation in our urban centres are living on borrowed time. There is a time for everything and one thinks Okada has served its purpose. Tricycles are quickly assuming the character of a bridge between Okada and commercial buses. They have the advantage of quicker movement in traffic hold-ups though this has also come with its own problems. The government must also move quickly to regulate their activities on the roads. As things stand, tricycle operators must be made to conform to traffic laws. The disorderliness that characterizes their activities may soon be their greatest undoing. Through such a regulation, there will be more decency on our roads as Okada departs for good.

Though the transport situation is yet to substantially improve, there is nothing to indicate that Okada operators are even prepared to change from their unruly activities. Rather, they have become more daring and menacing in their operations, running against traffic at their whims and caprices such that gives the impression that we have a lawless state. In this lawlessness, those who benefit are some unscrupulous law enforcement agencies, especially those charged with the control of traffic. In the face of the ban placed on police men against the mounting of roadblocks, the traffic points have now become the most veritable avenue to extort money from Okada operators who would rather offer money to law agents than obey the law.

It would appear to me that apart from the lure of money, that law enforcement officers are equally overwhelmed by the sheer number of Okada defaulters that they consider it time wasting and cumbersome to apprehend them. They seem to be saying, take money from them and let them go. So the acts of lawlessness go on unrestrained.

The restriction therefore comes with the added advantage of saving the law enforcement agents the problem of managing the menace of the high number of Okada defaulters. Our roads will be better for it.